Hello everyone and welcome to Deeper Waters where we are diving into the ocean of truth. We’ve lately been going through what it’s like to be an aspie for Autism Awareness Month. This has been an insider’s perspective which is not necessarily universal to all Aspies and Autists, but could apply to several. Tonight, I’d like to talk about the idea of touch.
Many of us bond easily with physical touch. For an Aspie, it is not the same way. Touch is also something that can be very intimate, though not necessarily sexually of course. It seems to indicate a new level in a relationship. For someone like myself, even a handshake at times can be awkward.
I recall being at a job once with an assistant manager none of us liked and we had a little dispute one day. I don’t recall what it was over, though I do know this and I mean this without any pride that I was in the right. What happened was that this manager put his arm around me in a kind of buddy-buddy stance with his over my shoulder. As soon as that was done, I went straight to the head manager up front and let it be known that this guy had better never touch me that way again.
For us, touch like that is highly uncomfortable and highly invasive. Of course, once we warm up, we can handle touch to a certain extent. As a married man, I am sometimes in public and there are other women around and while there can be contact such as the exchange of money on a job or something like that, I don’t like the touch. I have devoted myself in such a way that aside from family, the only female who I want to touch and receive the touch of in any way is my wife. Of course, that is also something about we Aspies and our loyalty levels.
When you are deailng with the Aspie, the Aspie will not want to touch you and that’s okay. Being a touchy-feely person around the Aspie will be scary to them. Until they get to know you, the Aspie wants to keep his distance. Of course, if you ever do get to the point where you can get that physical touch easily from the Aspie, then you can congratulate yourself upon reaching a high point with an Aspie and per our loyalty, if you keep that, you will find that you do indeed have something great.
What does this mean for evangelism? It means in our church situations we need to be careful. It can be the tendency to hug a new member in the church but if they’re an Aspie, this could be something to avoid. This is just throwing caution to the wind. Handshakes could be okay, but if you notice that the person is being hesitant, then it would be best to hold back. Just conversation will work and if the Aspie is someone of an intellectual bent, they will appreciate it a lot more.
Again, it’s all worth it to win one to Christ.
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